Hopfen am See aka my Happy Place

My weekly ramble No. 30

Finally I get to share more of my happy place with you. Hopfen am See (Hopfen-by-the-lake) is a little lakeside village that belongs to Füssen. It’s located in the state of Bavaria and the Southeast of the Allgäu. Most people probably know Neuschwanstein, the castle that served as a model for the Disney Castle. You can actually see the castle from our balcony.

Füssen Downtown

This winter holiday, while in Germany, we snuck away to Hopfen for 5 days and to meet our dear friends from Switzerland. Once more, it was just wonderful to be there, even though our stay was overshadowed by a foot injury, a tummy bug and bad weather. It always is. Being in Hopfen am Seejust makes me happy, no matter what the circumstances are and I’m so grateful that we have the chance to visit this family place every time we are in Germany.

The weather is often unpredictable.

The weather was gorgeous the first couple days and the lake was frozen. But a warm weather front hit Germany during the last three stays of our time. It started raining terribly, combined with heavy storms and the snow and ice just melted away.

There is so much to do in Hopfen am See.

Hopfen am See is called the “Allgäu Riviera” and its and offers many activities, summer and winter. Hiking, cycling, swimming, windsurfing, SUPing, skiing, sledding, etc.

There are more than 2,500 hotel beds (we couldn’t believe it ourselves) in and around town and at least one of the two ladies at the tourist office are very nice and helpful.

Next to one of my favorite places for a sundowner, the Seaside and the local bakery Feneberg, you can get milk, cheese and yogurt from a vending machine.

One of my favorite thing to do is to walk or run around the lake (Hopfensee-Rundweg). It’s an easy and flat 4.4 mile (7 km) trail that unfortunately gets very busy on weekends and holidays. On the south shore of the lake you can find a bunch of wooden statues made by a local artist.

Another nice walk is up to the old castle of Hopfen. From our place it’s just a 20-minute walk uphill and you get even more spectacular views than from our house. You can see all the major mountains of the alps here like the Säulingand the Aggenstein, a couple reliefs show all the mountains and their altitude.

At the Füssen Outlet Center you can buy a huge variety of German quality outdoor clothes. And the icing on the cake is that they have an integrated climbing course inside and outside the stores. Super fun!

There’s so much more I could tell you about my happy place, so I guess I will have to write another post about Hopfen am See soon. See you soon, I’m planning to come back in July!

I’m linking up with Jo’s Monday walks again, check out her beautiful walk in Lisbon and all the other interesting weekly walks.

Words of the day

Tell me, what you will do with your one wild and precious life?

— Mary Oliver

Hi! Hallo!

I’m Kathrin, a German who’s been living the last 9 years in the crazy world of Silicon Valley. Even though I love our life in California, I’m still missing Köln (Cologne) and the German lifestyle a lot. On this blog I share some of my stories and ruminate about what home really means. I’m a mother of two girls and the wife of an iSlave, a teacher, a social introvert and very passionate about the things I do.